Census 2010 Boot Camp for Journalists

DropBox: Age x Sex for Zip Codes

Here's the file.

E-Tutorials

The following are two video tutorials that illustrate use of some of the tools that we covered in the McCormick workshop. The audio on these may be dicey so they will likely be replaced.

American FactFinder Example:
This example walks a user through selecting a Geographic Comparison Table; downloading the data; and opening it up in Excel. If you know how to download/open in Excel, just stop watching at that point.

[Poverty Hot Spots Guide]
[Poverty Hot Spots E-Tutorial (mp4)]
[Poverty Hot Spots E-Tutorial (YouTube)]

PDQ-Explore example:
This example illustrates a query that is not available in American FactFinder; how to produce the query in PDQ-Explore; with some digressions about PUMA definitions and weighting.

[PDQ Age 60+ E-Tutorial (mp4)]
[Age 60+ E-Tutorial (YouTube)]

Another "Introduction to the Census"

This was a presentation by Farley and Neidert for an ICPSR webinar on censuses around the world. The USA presentation occurs at about the 45 minute mark. You can choose to watch it or just snag the slides.

[ppt]
[Video of session]

Original Source is from ICPSR's Social Science Data Fair

PDQ Explore Exercises: Poverty Focus

PDQ-Explore Exercises
[Microdata]
Using the ACS, 2008
Using several years of the ACS
Who has Health Insurance Coverage?
Using PDQ-Explore to Examine Newsworthy Issues
Complex Queries Using "Pointer" items
Using the Current Population Survey

Additional PDQ-Explore Examples
Using data from Census 2000
Using ACS and Census data
Looking at change over time

Additional Resources for PDQ-Explore
Indexing for Cost of Living
Variable Names across the Census, CPS, and IPUMS
IPUMS-USA website

Guide to Variables
Selected variables from IPUMS with PUMS, ACS, and CPS equivalent names

Register to use IPUMS
(required for making an extract)

Instructions for using the IPUMS Data Extraction System

Instructions for opening data on PC

Making an Extract of the ACS 3-year data from IPUMS
[ppt] [pdf]

Extract
(zipped)
Extract
(not zipped)

SAS program Stata program SPSS program

FAQ on 3-year ACS data

Note about income items in 3-year data

PDQ Software: Updates

This is a newer version of the data (all the 2008 microdata files). We will have the 2009 1-year data available shortly. The 3-year and 5-year data will not be available until 2011.

The following is a link to the PDQ-Explore software that you used during the workshop. You will need to download the zip file to the C:\ drive on your PC.
PDQ-Explore

As a reminder of what you need to do to get started, here is the introduction to Using PDQ-Explore, which includes some technical notes.
Introduction to PDQ-Explore

Guides to PDQ Explore
There are about 10 guides that describe in quite a bit of detail how to do many of the procedures covered in the class. If you find you need a reminder, check these out. You will need to scroll down the page to see the guides.

American FactFinder: Examples and Exercises

American FactFinder Exercises
[Summary data]
Introduction to American FactFinder
Unusual Poverty HotSpots
Not Ready for Prime Time: zip codes and census tracts
Not Ready for Prime Time: bulk downloads of zip code data
Dealing with Delays: What to do with a 2011 Release of Zip code data

"College town 'poverty' exposed: Low-income students help win grant money"
Stephen Koff and Bill Sloat | Cleveland Plain Dealer
September 17, 2006

Data from the Summary File Exercises
Poverty rates for places [Excel]
Vacancy data for Cleveland census tracts (Census 2000) [Excel]
Median Income for zip codes (Census 2000) [Excel]

Aggregate Data: PUMA to County conversion

The ACS provides annual data, but the geographic scope of these data is limited because of the 65,000+ population requirement. Less than 900 counties meet this cutpoint. One solution to this is to produce a PUMA-based query and then use a crosswalk to map PUMAs to counties.

PUMA to County Widget [PDQ-Explore output]
This widget takes output from PDQ-Explore and converts PUMA-based characteristics to county-based characteristics

Link

PUMA to County Widget [American FactFinder output]
This widget takes output from American FactFinder and converts PUMA-based characteristics to county-based characteristics

Link

Creating County Level Statistics from Microdata Files

Normally one would use tabular data to produce county-level statistics. However, sometimes the measure one wants is not available in tabular data and/or the county is not populous enough for county-based measures, e.g., ACS population limits.

The following document describes how one can produce county level data from PUMAs:

Creating County Level Statistics from Microdata Files

Here are the links to the executable program, the crosswalk, and instructions:

Program [p2c.exe]
Crosswalk [p2c.equ]
Guide to p2c [p2c.pdf]

Agenda and Participants

Workshop Agenda
Most of the presentations and handouts are available electronically. Look for links to these under Class Presentations and Handouts.

Workshop participants
This includes the contact information for the participants as well as the instructors. Send corrections to lisan@umich.edu.

Class Blog

Participants will make a blog entry as part of this workshop. If preferred, this can be done as a joint project among several participants. To gain access to the blog, please send a message to Lee Ridley (ljridley@umich.edu).

Instructions for making an entry into the blog are below:

Writing in Blogger

American FactFinder Exercises

Choose the exercises below that interest you - either by topic or by the geography they cover:

Exercises
Measuring Poverty: Which cities have the highest poverty rates in 2008?
Warning: ACS Data Quality
Census Tracts: Using data from the 2000 census to examine vacancy in the Cleveland metro area
Bulk downloads of zip code data to examine racial differences in median income in the United States
Testing Significance of Economic Change in a State or Metropolitan Area
Downloading Data for all Places in a State to Look at Economic Change

Extras
Excel Tip Sheet

"College town 'poverty' exposed"
Stephen Koff and Bill Sloat | Cleveland Plain Dealer
September 17, 2006

Looking at Poverty with ACS Summary Data

Exercises from a Quantitative Reasoning Class
Looking at Current Events (circa 2005)
Guide to Looking at Current Events

Data Consultant (circa 2007)
Guide to Data Consultant
Excel file [A03 Iraq War Deaths.xls]

Using PDQ Explore

PDQ Explore is software that allows users to create and analyze queries across millions of records in seconds, and quickly refine and adjust those queries interactively.

Getting Started with PDQ
Using PDQ Software Technical requirements, installation and a few example queries
PDQ-Explore installation (readme file)
PDQ Help

PDQ Software
Zip file

Note: The contents of the zip file should be put in C:\Program Files\pdq

Directory link (download specific files):
explore.exe, EXPLORE.INI, ipacs08.pdqCodebook, and ipacs08.pdqCustomItems

These files should be downloaded to c:\Program Files\pdq. Direct links to these files are below:
explore.exe
EXPLORE.INI
ipacs08.pdqCodebook
ipacs08.pdqCustomItems

PDQ Explore Guides
Basic Query Window
Saving and Exporting Your Work
Displaying Your Results in the Expert Query Window
Universe Selection: Using Comparison Operators
Cross-Tabulations: One- Two- or Three-Way Tables
Summary Statistics: Means, Standard Deviations and Ranges
Quantiles and Medians
Simple Recoding Using Arithmetic Operators
Weighted Data
Recoding with Custom Item Window
Obtaining Correlations
Extracting Data for Statistical Analysis

PDQ Exercises

Six Examples presented by Ren Farley
PDQ Examples from the Seeded Scenarios

Workshop Presentations: Wednesday

Below are links to the lectures presented at the workshop. On occasion, there were handouts associated with a presentation. These are listed under the presentation.

Major Demographic Trends and the Use of Census Data by the American Media
Bill Frey, University of Michigan and The Brookings Institution
[ppt] [pdf]

What Makes a Good Story?
Paul Overberg, USA Today

]]> The History of the American Census and Controversies about Recent Enumerations
Ren Farley, University of Michigan
[ppt] [pdf]

Additional Resources:
Annotated Bibliography of Books and Reports Pertaining to the Decennial Census
Supreme Court Cases Relevant to the Census
Analysis of Whether Unauthorized Aliens Must be Included in the Census (Congressional Research Service)
Congressional Efforts to Control the Census and the Census Bureau

The American Community Survey: A Comprehensive Source of Information about Social, Economic, and Demographic Change
Lisa Neidert, University of Michigan
[ppt] [pdf]

Additional Resources:
ACS Compass Product: What the Media Needs to Know
Link to all the ACS Compass Products

Making Sense of Census Geography
Lisa Neidert, University of Michigan
[ppt] [pdf]

Additional Resources:
Tracking Metropolitan America into the 21st Century: A Field Guide to the New Metropolitan and Micropolitan Definitions
A Guide to State and Local Census Geography

Using CensusScope to Understand the Changing Landscape in the United States
Bill Frey and J.P. Dewitt, University of Michigan
[ppt] [pdf]

Introduction to American FactFinder
J.P. DeWitt and Lisa Neidert, University of Michigan
[ppt] [pdf]

Additional Resources:
An Introduction to Summary Products (and American FactFinder)
[shortened version of a Census Bureau presentation]
Presentation Notes
[shortened version of a Census Bureau presentation]

Accessing and Working with 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) Data
Cynthia Davis Hollingsworth, Census Bureau
[wmv] [presented at the ICPSR OR annual meetings]

Seeded Scenarios

The purpose of these examples is to show one how to use Census and/or ACS data to describe characteristics of communities or populations, broad demographic changes relevant for the nation or a community, and the consequences of political power and federal funds.

Click on one of the topics below for an introduction to the topic, background/reference articles, links to ready-made tables/figure/maps, and introductory shells for independent analysis of the issues:

Census Logistics
Apportionment
Census 2010 Operations, Planning, and Challenges
Outreach

Demographic Change
Population Growth/Loss
Boomerang Kids
Labor Force change
Family and Household Structure
Same-Sex Couples/Cohabitation

Population Profiles
Immigrants
Race